Song of Solomon 3:9

King Solomon made himself a chariot of the wood of Lebanon. MADE HIMSELF A CHARIOT - more elaborately made than the "bed," or traveling litter (Song of Solomon 3:7) [ 'apiryown (H668)]: from a Hebrew root [paaraah], to elaborate (Ewald). So the temple of "cedar of Lebanon," as compared with the temporary tabernacle of shittim-wood. Jesus Christ's body is the antitype, 'made' by the Father for Him (Hebrews 10:5), the wood answering to His human nature, the gold His divine, the two being but one Christ....

6-11 A wilderness is an emblem of the world; the believer comes out of it when he is delivered from the love of its sinful pleasures and pursuits, and refuses to comply with its customs and fashions, to seek happiness in communion with the Saviour. A poor soul shall come up, at last, under the conduct of the Comforter; like a cloud of incense ascending from the altar, or the smoke of the burnt-offerings. This signifies pious and devout affections, and the mounting of the soul heaven-ward. The believer is filled with the graces of God's Spirit; his devotions now are very lively. These graces and comforts are from the heavenly Canaan. He, who is the Peace of his people, the King of the heavenly Zion, has provided for the safe conveyance of his redeemed through the wilderness of this world. The bed, or palanquin, was contrived for rest and easy conveyance, but its beauty and magnificence s...

Verse 9. _OF THE WOOD OF LEBANON._] Of the _cedar_ that grew on that mount. It is very likely that a _nuptial bed_, not a _chariot_, is intended by the original word אפיון _appiryon_. _Montanus_ properly translates it _sponsarum thalamum_, a nuptial bed. It may, however, mean a _palanquin_....

The principal and central action of the Song; the bride’s entry into the city of David, and her marriage there with the king. Jewish interpreters regard this part of the poem as symbolizing the “first” entrance of the Church of the Old Testament into the land of promise, and her spiritual espousals, and communion with the King of kings, through the erection of Solomon’s Temple and the institution of its acceptable worship. Christian fathers, in a like spirit, make most things here refer to the espousals of the Church with Christ in the Passion and Resurrection, or the communion of Christian souls with Him in meditation thereon. Song of Solomon 3:6 Two or more citizens of Jerusalem, or the chorus of youths, companions of the bridegroom, describe the magnificent appearance of the bride borne in a royal litter, an

EXPOSITION SONG OF SOLOMON 3:1 BY NIGHT ON MY BED I SOUGHT HIM WHOM MY SOUL LOVETH: I SOUGHT HIM, BUT I FOUND HIM NOT. The bride is probably relating a dream. The time referred to is the close of the day on which she had been visited by her lover. She is retired to rest, and dreams that she searches for the beloved object in the neighbouring city (cf. Job 33:15). It is another way of telling her love. She is always longing for the beloved one. She had been waiting for him, and he came not, and retired to rest with a heart troubled and anxious because her lover did not appear as she expected at the evening hour. The meaning may be "night after night (לֵילוֹת)" (cf. So...

KING SOLOMON MADE HIMSELF A CHARIOT OF THE WOOD OF LEBANON. The word translated chariot is only used in this place; some render it a bride chamber u; others a nuptial bed w, such as is carried from place to place; it is used in the Misnah x for the nuptial, bed, or open chariot, in which the bride was carried from her father's house to her husband's. The Septuagint render it by φορειον, a word near in sound to that in the Hebrew text, and was the "lectica" of the ancients, somewhat like our "sedan"; some of which were adorned with gold and precious stones, and had silver feet y, or pillars, as follows: it seems upon the whole to be the nuptial chariot in which, according to Pausanias z, three only were carried, the bride, who sat in the middle, then the bridegroom, and then the friend of the bridegroom: something of this kind is the "palki" or "palanquin" of the Indians, in which the bri...

CHAPTER 3 The scene changes. The bride is now alone and in the darkness of the night. She is seeking her Beloved and is unable to find Him. Her heart is filled with the same love she exhibits in the previous chapter, but the joy and comfort she lacks. We see her walking through the streets and in the broadways, looking for Him whom her soul loveth; she sought Him but found Him not; Then the watchmen of the night which pass through the street came across the seeking one and she eagerly inquires, “Have ye seen Him whom my soul loveth?” They have no answer for her, probably they knew not what she meant. No sooner had she passed them by, when she found Him. All this is prophetic, as it reveals the soul exercise of that godly remnant of Israel during the night of tribulation. There is no need of giving a meaning to every detail. As already stated, His coming described in So

THE COMING OF THE KING. These verses are generally taken to describe the procession of the king with his attendants coming to the wedding. On the dramatic theory it is Solomon coming to the north where the Shulammite (see on Song of Solomon 6:13) is supposed to be; but on the view upon which this exposition is based, we regard it as the peasant king coming to claim his bride. The same form of address is applied to the Shulammite in Song of Solomon 6:10; Song of Solomon 8:5, and by LXX and Vulg. here. The pronoun may, however, be translated What and referred to THE LITTER in Song of

KING SOLOMON MADE, &C. The remark of. third inhabitant of Jerusalem. See the Structure (above). A CHARIOT. a palanquin....

Song of Solomon 3:6-11. The King's Return King Solomon must be supposed to be coming from Jerusalem, to the royal residence in the North where the Shulammite is, or to be returning thither after an absence. Apparently he comes in special splendour, seeking to overawe her thereby. She notices the approaching train, and asks what it may be, Song of Solomon 3:6. In the remaining verses a watchman or attendant tells her that it is the litter of Solomon surrounded by his guards, Song of Solomon 3:7. He then describes the litter, Song of Solomon 3:9, while in...